Ranking the Star Wars Flims

Ok, so inspired by my Pixar Film Rankings post, I will attempt to rank (from worst to first) the films of the Star Wars Epic...6 to 1...

# 6: Attack of the Clones: It has it's moments (hundreds of Jedi fighting at once in a gladiator-bug arena? Pretty cool...), but for the most part this film is just an excuse to fill 2 1/2 hours between Episodes One and Three. I mean, I'll still watch it (because hey, it's Star Wars), but I'm not sure I've voluntarily watched it by myself since going to see it in the theater. I know it could be said that in many ways Star Wars "steals" form other genres and archetypes (old westerns, World War II dogfight scenes, Kurosawa samurai films, etc.), but AOTC just seems to be blatantly ripping off fairly recent films like "Bladerunner", "The Fifth Element", "Gladiator", etc. All really cool films...but one thing I was hoping for was more originality. And the "anakin" character just bugged me so much in this one... But I am glad the Jar Jar character was WAY scaled down...

# 5: The Phantom Menace: Poor Episode 1...it was destined to disappoint at least some. All-in-all though, I left the theater saying it still "felt" like a Star Wars movie, which is a good thing. Not sure if "Clones" always does... I really dug the Qui Gon Jinn character, the pod races, and even the ending battle/palace infiltration scenes. And above all, Darth Maul. I SO didn't want him to get killed off...and the sabre fight between Maul, Qui Gon, and Obi Wan...amazing. BUT (and there will always be "buts"), Jar Jar...oh, why? Well, I know a bit more "why" now, as George Lucas said he put Jar Jar in there for his kids...and my son really likes Jar Jar. So, I suppose since Star Wars is George's baby, he can do what he wants...

# 4: Revenge of the Sith: There is a BIG gulf between #5 and #4 in this countdown to me. In fact, ROTS seems to capture the magic of the original trilogy (Eps 4-6) than the other "prequels" by far (even if sections of Episode One seem to as well...but just in spurts). I wanted so badly to rank one of the prequels above an original trilogy film...but I just couldn't. That said, ROTS is pretty cool, and may be (along with "The Empire Strikes Back") the Star Wars film with the most, um, juevos. PG-13? Lots of death, including the murder of young Jedi...and Darth Vader's burns...wow. That had to hurt. I also think the Obi Wan character is at his coolest here.

# 3: Return of the Jedi: The special effects here were so amazing (for 1983!) that when Lucas re-issued the original trilogy, this one hardly needed to be touched. The forest battle/Vader-Luke-Emperor fight/Death Star attack at the end are just so fun to watch. The Ewoks...well, not as bad an addition as Jar Jar but I would have rather it been a bunch of Wookiees...

# 2: A New Hope: Ah, the one that started it all. In some ways I actually think ROTJ is better, but I just have to rank this here. I was 4 years old (or 3?) when I saw it with my dad in Pittsburgh, PA, and the rest is history. If you want to see more about how this movie truly changed everything and captured the world at exactly the right time, watch the documentary "Empire of Dreams".

# 1: The Empire Strikes Back: It is interesting that this is # 1, because I'm not even sure if it's the most fun one to watch. But it's the best film of the group. Han Solo becomes one of my favorite characters EVER in this one. Luke is actually kinda cool. And the Colt 45 dude as Lando? Love it. Yoda shows up. We see a glimpse of some of the "mythos" behind the story coming to light. And the Rebels lose (which needed to happen...). All in all, just a great film. I even think non-Star Wars fans could agree to that...